Eighteen years ago, I bought my first copy of Photoshop through the University of Texas’s student center — even with the big fat student discount it still cost a small fortune! Initially I was only interested in using it for graphic design purposes: making backgrounds and titles for websites, cd-roms and some print materials. But once I had kids and began taking a lot of pictures, my Photoshop focus changed.
One of my favorite things to do now is add texture to photographs. It is so easy to enhance or alter the mood or feel of the photograph with textures.
Yesterday’s photo is a perfect example. Even after several takes with different apertures and different lighting I still felt like the mood wasn’t soft and dreamy enough, so I looked through my texture collection for one to add. (For a better view, click on the photos to see them full size.)
Step One: Pick a Texture
I eventually settled on a new one from Kim Klassen called Poetic.
There are so many wonderful sources for textures out there. I am particularly fond of Kim’s textures (and the Texture Tuesday link party she hosts). I can also recommend French Kiss Textures as well as Pixel Dust Photo Art. Flickr has many groups dedicated to texture and Textures for Layers is one of my favorite sources of inspiration and new textures. And finally there is Jerry Jones and his prolific and always beautifully different textures.
Step Two: Pick a Blend Mode
Once you have your texture, using the move tool, transfer it to your photograph and select a blend mode.
What’s a blend mode? Well, I will probably be back with more about blend modes in the future. There’s a lot to be said about them! Here is a quick guide for the curious. I would add that more often than not, when you are dealing with textures you will either pick multiply, screen, overlay or soft light. But play around and try all of them before you settle. That’s the fun part! To quickly try out all the blend modes use the keyboard shortcut, shift-+ (plus) to change to the next mode, and shift– (minus) to change to the previous mode. (If that doesn’t work, try selecting the move tool and make sure that you have the textured layer highlighted in the layers palette.)
Step Three: Adjust to Taste
I usually find that after I’ve added the texture layer the picture is now darker than I like.
I typically use a curves adjustment layer to brighten things up. (There’s another future tutorial — the power of curves!) But the beauty (and part of the frustration) of Photoshop is that there are usually several different ways to do the same thing — so use whichever tool you prefer to finish off the picture. Sometimes they need to be lightened, sometimes darkened, sometimes they need to have the contrast boosted, sometimes saturation needs to be lowered or boosted. Play around and found what you like.
The featured photograph is a texture that I made last year. If you are interested you can download it here.
Do you already do textures? Are there any resources that you’ve found especially helpful? Why not share in the comments?
